The Late Vic Johnson of Kingston by Keith Mott

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The late Vic Johnson of Kingston.

Vic was one of the sport's gentlemen and he won 1st Three Borders Federation Kingsdown (1952 birds) in the 2005 season, lifting the Inland O.B. Average, O.B. Average, Combined O.B. / Y.B. Inland Average and Combined Average in the Federation.  He won 31 positions in the Three Borders Federation in the 2002 season including four times 1st open Federation, twice 2nd, twice 3rd, twice 4th,  twice 5th and once 6th and was also runner up for the Federation Individual Points Trophy. Brilliant pigeon racing! One of his 2002 Three Borders Federation winners, his good blue pied widowhood cock, 'Slippery', had to his credit nine times 1st club, twice 1st Federation plus 2nd and 3rd open Federation. This game cock was half-brother to one of Vic's SMT Combine winners ‘Diesel’, both having the same sire. ‘Diesel’ won the SMT Combine from La Ferte Bernard (3,795 birds) and also won the Federation Inland. Vic won the first Three Borders Federation race of the 2002 season from Lulworth with a yearling Janssen blue chequer widowhood cock, '26820', which had been on the darkness system and flew the full young bird programme the season prior. His sire was the Johnson loft's other SMT Combine winner, the outstanding blue chequer pied De Klak cock, ‘Denny's Boy’, winner of 1st Federation (twice) and 1st SMT Combine Sennen Cove. This wonderful pigeon was bred by Dennis Sheppard, the old Kingston club secretary, through the Terry Hudson / De Klak bloodlines. Vic told me at that time that he raced in the very strong Kingston & District HS and won ten times 1st club in 2001, mirroring the same performance in the 2002 season when he won ten times 1st club again.

Vic had been in the sport for over 60 years having become interested as a six year old in his home town of Putney in South London. As a lad he used to see flying round the houses a local flock of pigeons which belonged to Ted Townsend. He said that the man to beat then was the late, great Freddie Meale of Houns1ow, who won the SMT Combine several times. Vic was very keen on fishing and, on starting up in pigeons, had a lot of help from Ted. His first stock were obtained from here, there and everywhere, and he didn't do very well racing in his first club, the old Barnes & Mortlake Flying Club. His first loft was built from old doors and floorboards salvaged from demolition sites and his first successful birds were obtained from Freddie Meale. His families were Barry Goodhand of Wakefield, Janssens and Van Loons via Plant Brothers, Terry Hudson De Klak and the old Micky Walker lines for Channel racing.

He raced mainly widowhood with 24 cocks, with a few pairs on natural for racing from France, all the racers being paired up in mid-January. The widowhood pigeons reared a pair of youngsters and the hens were taken away when the squeakers were about 16 days old and the cocks were on the system. They got 12 training tosses up to 25 miles before the first Federation race and were not trained during the season, just exercised around the loft twice a day. The widowhood racers only raced inland and the natural team went through to Pau. Vic was very proud when he told me that his best long-distance pigeon was a Micky Walker natural blue chequer cock and he had been clocked on the winning day with the London & South-East Classic Club from  Pau, recording 28th and 31st open, flying556 miles to the New Malden loft. A real quality pigeon! Vic's main racing loft was 24ft long with trapping through windows off landing boards; his small widowhood loft was very old and ramshackle, but he said he would not change it because the pigeons loved it and race well to it. He was retired from work and said he was really enjoying himself, giving most of his time to the pigeons. He was a 365 days a year pigeon man and derived his greatest pleasure when he clocked from Pau. He maintained that to keep a successful trend in the pigeon loft, you have to give the birds the best care and feeding. And don't sit on the fence; always be prepared to try something different. He fed a varied diet, according to the work being done, and makes up his own mixtures, using all the high fat seeds, groats and pearl barley, which had been soaked in peanut oil. Vic liked plenty of natural garlic and used multivitamins twice a week. He kept 12 pairs of stock birds and his 50 youngsters were put on the darkness system. Although raced to the perch, they were allowed to pair up if they want to.

If a fancier is refused membership of a club, Vic believed that the club concerned should be made to put in writing the reason why and the letter sent to the RPRA; he said no one who lives in a club's radius should be refused membership unless they are a known troublemaker. Another thing that got on Vic's nerves was fanciers who don't wing stamp their birds. In the 2002 season he had about 20 freshly race rubbered stray birds in and only seven of them were wing stamped! A good, dry and well-ventilated loft was very important for success with racing pigeons, said Vic, and he rates Khan Brothers of Kingston as the best local fanciers because they were highly successful in National and Classic races. He thought the moult was a natural function and liked to see the birds falling to pieces, as it showed things are going well and they are in good health. During the moult he parted the hens and cocks and fed plenty of protein and seed. Vic tried deep litter on the loft floor many years ago, but thought it's detrimental to the fancier's health when breathing in the dust. When picking out new breeders, he liked good winning bloodlines, good eyesign, soft feathering, but said most of his stock team were his retired outstanding racers.

Text & Photos by Keith Mott (March 2026)